So Razor and I were talking about money in the bank and who we want to win. He suggested Sami Zayn but to me I think Zayn is a "what if" where you don't actually want to see him win because you know WWE would fuck up the story.
That said, I'm going to write out how I would book a Sami Zayn MITB win.
For starters, he, yanno, has to win the Money in the Bank match. Then I would IMMEDIATELY put him and Jinder (Who I would put over Orton) together, teasing Sami as the guy to beat Jinder. Twice in a two-month period I'd write a segment on Smackdown where Sami Zayn has a chance to cash-in. First, Jinder would be unconscious and I would show Sami backstage with the briefcase, talking to himself about "What he should do" and then ultimately not taking advantage of the situation. The second time I'd have his music hit and him come to the ring while Jinder is selling an injury (Like Del Rio for Ziggler) only for Sami to become concerned with his injury and turn his aggression to compassion where he ends up helping Jinder Mahal to the back, only for Jinder to stop selling, attack Sami, and flee out of harms way before he can retaliate.
After that, Jinder and Sami would split away from each other. Sami would go to feud with Dolph Ziggler, who ridicules him for not having the balls to take a chance like he did. Jinder would go on to feud with John Cena, who commits to Smackdown Live full-time so he can bring the WWE Heavyweight Championship back where it belongs. Cena beats Mahal for #17.
After that, I'd have Sami cut a promo on Smackdown about "opportunity" and how despite the fact he's been given chance after chance to take the easy route, he can't bring himself to do it. He wants to show kids that doing things the hard-way pays off, and he's going to do that by being the first person since the champion to not cash-in on a vulnerable opponent... to instead go one-on-one in the middle of the ring with the champion. He respects John Cena and knows he won't cop out. No DQ, No Count Out, No Tricks. The better man wins, end of story.
So he challenges the champion to a one-on-one singles match at Survivor Series in November. I'd assume this would be the co-main event to whatever the Raw brand is doing, and I'd give it the most time on the show. Something like 35 in-ring minutes. Sami hits every move he has. Sami kicks out of every move Cena has. In the end, Cena catches a Heluva Kick and hits an AA for the win. Sami is crushed.
At the same time, Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles seem to be heading toward a clash.
That Tuesday on Smackdown, Jinder Mahal and Dolph Ziggler both take turns shitting on Sami Zayn verbally. They demand he comes out to defend himself, and he comes out, but to no music. He's not feeling up for the ska and the dancing. He agrees with them. He should have taken the easy route. He made the biggest mistake of his career, and he agrees with all of the negative things they're saying about him.
Cena finds Sami backstage and says he needs a partner for a tag-match against Jinder and Dolph, but Sami says he just doesn't think he can help. Cena tries to pep him up, but can't do it. Sami leaves, still crushed.
Cena takes on Dolph and Jinder two-on-one and pins Dolph in the main event of that episode of Smackdown Live.
At Tables, Ladders, and Chairs Cena takes on AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura in a triple threat match. Sami is put into singles competition against Jinder Mahal, whom Sami has still never beaten.
Jinder wins the match after faking an injury and taking advantage of Sami's good heartedness. Sami doesn't even seem phased by it. The week after TLC on SDL Jinder Mahal cuts a promo on how Sami Zayn is everything wrong with society and that children should be taught that life isn't fair and that if you want to get ahead you need to take from others. Sami is shown backstage looking upset by what Jinder is saying. That night, Sami has a singles match against AJ Styles and loses a back-and-forth match-up after AJ hits him with a Styles Clash. The same night, Shinsuke Nakamura pins John Cena and becomes the number one contender.
The week following on Smackdown Live, John Cena is asked whether he thinks he can beat AJ Styles or Shinsuke Nakamura in a singles match if they won the Royal Rumble, since it's different than grabbing a belt off a rung. He says that those two are the favorites to win the Royal Rumble, but he's the favorite to be partying as a champion in New Orleans. He's 17 times the World Champion for a reason. In the background, Sami walks into the shot, gives a stern look to Cena's back, and walks off.
Cena and Zayn take on Styles and Nakamura in the SDL main event, and Zayn pins Styles countering the Styles Clash into a small-package. Cena celebrates with him, but Zayn shrugs him off and storms away, leaving Cena confused.
The next week, Zayn loses his Royal Rumble qualifier to Jinder Mahal in the main event. Jinder cheats to win, and while he and The Singh brothers celebrate, Sami comes back into the ring and fights them all off. He destroys Jinder with a Helluva Kick and seethes into the monitor as the show goes to commercial.
The announcers, of course, play into this... asking if we're getting a new Sami Zayn.
Sami talks to General Manager Daniel Bryan about what happened and says that he deserves another shot. Daniel Bryan, to the dismay of the crowd, says that he doesn't. Sami says that of all people, he should understand to have all the talent in the world and that not being good enough because something outside of their control was working against them. Daniel Bryan tells Sami that the kinds of obstacles he's facing can be overcome, and he's just not seeing the whole picture, but relents and grants Sami access into a "last chance" six pack challenge with other failed qualifiers.
Sami wins, and John Cena is shown cheering him on.
The last SDL before the Royal Rumble features Sami teaming with Kevin Owens to take on Shinsuke Nakamura and John Cena. "The Royal Rumble is all about every man for himself, and what better represents that spirit than putting opponents and enemies on the same team?!"
Nakamura picks up the win, pinning Kevin Owens. After the match Cena and Nakamura have a face-off, but go to the turnbuckles to pose for the crowd. When Nakamura gets down from the second rope, Zayn sprints in and nails him with a Helluva Kick. Zayn stares, breating deeply at a bewildered John Cena as the credits roll.
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Royal Rumble
John Cena and Shinsuke Nakamura goes to a no-contest when AJ Styles interferes, turning back heel. Later on, Nakamura will distract AJ Styles in the Royal Rumble and cause him to be eliminated.
Sami Zayn is entrant number one. Entrant number two is Braun Strowman. Zayn takes an ass-whooping from the opening bell, but still ends up in the final four with Roman Reigns, (Entrant 21), Seth Rollins (Entrant 27), and Finn Balor (Entrant 13).
Rollins and Reigns form a team and work together. Team-work, combined with their freshness, lead to them gaining control over Balor and Zayn. After beating them both down, they go for an elimination on Zayn, but Zayn does a comeback and starts building momentum. Both he and Reigns end up on the side of the ring. They go back and forth, but ultimately Zayn eliminates Reigns with a Helluva kick on the apron, and the crowd goes nuts. However, Zayn waits too long and catches a flying knee from Rollins, eliminating him.
On Smackdown Live, John Cena puts over Sami Zayn's performance, saying that if he had drawn a later number he would have won, but admitting that being close doesn't count for much in WWE and Zayn falling short seems to be a pattern.
Zayn says he's sick of "moral victories" and being the guy that can't win the big one.
Randy Orton bumps into Sami in the hallway and says to him that he smells his fear of failure and as a predator he's going to strike Sami tonight whether he sees it coming or not.
Randy Orton and Sami Zayn is the main event, and there is a ref bump and moment where Sami contemplates turning heel, calling back to his angle with Neville. Again, he thinks better of it. Orton hits an RKO out of nowhere and the whole world assumes Sami is done, but he kicks out. Sami counters a second RKO with a Blue Thunder Bomb and wins on a Helluva Kick.
Daniel Bryan announces the six participants for Elimination Chamber are: Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, and Kevin Owens.
In the weeks heading into Elimination Chamber, Daniel Bryan puts the six competitors into a variety of singles matches versus each other. Sami Zayn goes 1-2, beating Orton but losing to Nakamura and Kevin Owens. Orton, Nakamura, and Styles all win 2 matches and lose just 1.
Randy Orton cuts promos that entire month about "Destiny" and how he and John Cena are "Destined to do this forever" and how this time, he's going to be the one at the top of the mountain.
During the go-home show, Orton cuts that promo in the ring, only to be interrupted by Nakamura, who says that it's his destiny to be the first Japanese WWE World Heavyweight Champion. That is interrupted by AJ Styles, who is interrupted by John Cena, who says that they all have "Destiny" and "Fantasy" confused. At Wrestlemania, he controls his destiny, and it doesn't matter who his opponent is.
The main event is Zayn, Cena, Nakamura, and Orton vs Styles, Owens, Corbin, and Mahal (Cena's EC opponent)
Zayn hits the Helluva Kick on Mahal and he pops out of the turnbuckle into an AA, giving Team Cena the win. They all celebrate, except Sami, who stands in the ring looking attentively at Cena. Cena notices the look and stops what he's doing to address it. After an awkward stand-off, Sami offers Cena a handshake, and Cena reluctantly accepts. Cena tries to pull away, but Sami pulls him back.
The camera zooms in on Sami's face as he says "Destiny" to Cena. The camera switches angles and the show goes to black as Cena's exuberant victorious expression turns to concern. Just before it fades out, Randy Orton hits an RKO out of nowhere on Sami Zayn and the color returns. Orton staresdown Cena, who regains his composure as the show fades to black for real this time.
Sami Zayn is the first one in the chamber, and he starts the match with Kevin Owens. The announcers play-up that Sami was also first in the Royal Rumble and how his bad-luck has continued. The announcers also play-up that Zayn lost one-on-one matches to both Shinsuke Nakamura and Kevin Owens in recent weeks and how Nakamura, Orton, and Styles all faired better overall than Zayn did.
Nakamura is out third, then Styles, then Corbin, then Orton last.
JBL proclaims Orton the favorite because "A snake with good luck is hard to beat!"
About three minutes after Orton enters the ring, AJ Styles hits a Styles Clash on Zayn in the middle of the ring. 1! 2!
KINSHASA on Styles out of camera range. Nakamura breaks up the pin and sends Styles packing for the first elimination. He taunts AJ as he is escorted out of the cage. While this is going on, Owens crawls from the caged floor into the ring to try to pin Sami, but Sami kicks out at the last second. Corbin is the next to go with an RKO, leaving Orton, Owens, Zayn, and Nakamura.
AJ Styles returns to ring side with a steel chair, and starts attacking the referees. He breaks into the cage, and leaves everyone on the floor with chair shots, but ultimately does the most damage to Nakamura. He finally leaves the ring area, and as he does, Kevin Owens crawls toward the lifeless body of Nakamura and pins him.
All three men take about 45 seconds to get to their feet. After a pause to look around and create tension, Owens suggests to Orton that they team up to get rid of Zayn. Orton agrees, and they methodically take out Zayn, beating him into the ground. Orton yells at Owens to "Finish it" so he picks him up and throws him into the ropes, and connects with a Pop-Up Powerbomb. Before he can get down for the pin, though, Randy nails Owens with an RKO. Randy gets up and taunts him with body movements as only Orton can do when he's hyped. This takes a good 5-6 seconds. He takes a step toward Owens, seemingly to get the pin, but Zayn pulls the back of his trunks in the other direction and brings him in for a Schoolboy. 1-2-3. Orton flips out, incredulous at the events that transpired. Zayn gives a rye smile, and takes a deep breath in through his nose, calling back to their backstage segment where Orton told him he could smell his fear and he could strike whether he saw it coming or not. Owens gets to his feet slowly, in the corner, right where Zayn wants him.
Helluva Kick. It's over. Sami wins. Sami gets one last shot at Cena.
The promos from that point write themselves. Cena is the ultimate favorite and Zayn is the ultimate underdog. Zayn couldn't beat him with a hometown advantage in Montreal for the John Cena US Open Challenge and couldn't beat him with the Money in the Bank advantage, and now has earned one last shot, where literally everything is against him. Zayn talks about "destiny" and about all the times he had it confused with "fantasy," and how this opportunity was the hardest earned and he won't let it slip through his fingers again. Zayn, of course, wins at Wrestlemania, in a match similar to Cena's matches with Styles, where his heart is the story. On that night, Zayn kicks out of everything, gets color, and finally wins the big one.
The next night on Raw, Zayn opens the show and tells the world that he told you that people that cut corners, that take advantage of others, and people that don't have the right attitude don't get ahead and for a time he was convinced he was wrong, and now he is the greatest example of hard work being more important than a ruthless demeanor. Like in life, timing and perseverance is everything. You can't pull yourself out of the game when it's getting hard. Sometimes even if you work hard and do everything right, you fall short. That's OK. When things get difficult it's easy to throw in the towel, but you have to keep fighting. He was at the edge of the cliff following his Money in the Bank cash-in loss and it was the fans that brought him back from the brink.
Sometimes you can't tell the difference between destiny and fantasy. He learned along the way that fantasy is believing that you're in total control of everything and that if you do your side of the bargain that you'll get what you want when you want it. If it were up to him, he'd have won it all at Survivor Series. But destiny is different. Destiny is about destination and path. You control your own destiny as long as you stay on that path. You don't get to control when you get there, you only get to control whether or not you have a shot.
Subject: Fantasy Booking the Money in the Bank winner and story 
